9/3/21 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Our Tiger Welcomes you to School this year!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family:

With the start of the school year have come a number of funerals being held over at the church. This may sound morbid, but one of my favorite reasons for working in a Catholic school is the fact that our day and routine is sometimes inconvenienced by these end of life important services.

The old wive’s tale says that death come in series of three. That happens frequently here. We will go months without a funeral and then have two or three or four within a week or two.

Funerals are typically held around 10am. Sometimes there is visitation before the service begins. In pre-covid days there would sometimes be luncheons held in the church space (lovingly referred to as the old rectory). At some funerals there is not a parking spot to be found and the procession to the graveyard can take many minutes to organize and begin.

Cars in the parking lot interfere with recess. If the weather is good we hustle students over to the field and back. If the field is too wet or snow covered we lose outside recess for funerals, and that is more than just okay with me, not because I prefer indoor recess to out but because funerals are as much a part of parish life as baptisms, weddings, weekly, All School and Sunday Masses.

Fairly soon Father Dooley is returning altar servers to our liturgies. In the past our students would be called upon to serve at funerals, missing some class time for it. I look forward to that resuming. That is more than just okay with me. Our Lady of Peace Parish gives so much to our school, including money to run the place, that giving back whenever and wherever we can is entirely appropriate.

One of the limitations of our parish is the lack of a large gathering space. As I mentioned some funeral crowds are big and a luncheon after a funeral can be very comforting as family and friends of the deceased break bread together. 

I have proposed to Father Dooley that we allow funeral luncheons to be held in our school cafeteria. At those time the cafeteria can serve a brown bag lunch and students can eat in their classrooms or in the gym. It is not that we ask students to interact with guests or dwell on the death of someone they don’t know but a parish is like a small town and in times of both need and celebration we want to be all together in assisting when we can and how we can.

I was reminded of this just a few months ago in April when my father passed away. I knew that there would be many people at the funeral and his home parish, Our Lady of Victory, is fairly small. If you recall, even Sunday Masses weren’t back to normal then and so I asked Father Dooley if I could have the funeral here knowing that attendees would have a little more space. Father graciously agreed.

The parking lot was full that day and it took a long time for the funeral procession to St. Joseph Cemetery to get organized and on the road, so recess was impacted that day for sure (the school didn’t make me do recess duty that day!) It was so comforting to have my Dad’s funeral at the place where I work and where I was married and where some of my grandchildren were baptized. Some day, hopefully not soon, my own funeral service will be here and that brings comfort to me. I know that must be true for the family of our parishioners to say goodbye in the same space where their loved ones attended Mass and maybe even school!

As we come out, hopefully sooner than later, of this pandemic we over at 40 E. Dominion want to be of more service to 20 E. Dominion. Besides altar serving we do Keep Christ in Christmas with the Knights and make sandwiches twice a month for St. Vincent DePaul. Our students cantor at Mass. Some of our students and families assist on beautification days and many work the Church festival. Parish life is about a person’s whole life, and of their death, and Our Lady of Peace School is and must always be a part of Our Lady of Peace Parish. 

Jim Silcott